BIOMETRIA E PRODUÇÃO DE MATRIZES DE PALMA ORELHA DE ELEFANTE MEXICANA Opuntia stricta IMMY

Abstract

The Mexican elephant ear palm (Opuntia stricta) presents as promising both in term of production by area and resistance to carmine cochineal. Introduced more recently in the semiarid space are not known for O. stricta research on effect of cutting rackets of various orders in the matrix plant. This research had more information on the response of Mexican Elephant Ear O. stricta palm to different cut intensities. The experiment was installed in the month of May, 2017 in the old headquarters of Fazenda Caridade, rural area of the municipality of Campina Grande. Twenty specimens were selected from a population of Mexican elephant ear elephant palm mother plants at the age of two to show the four (4) treatments: matrix, primary, secondary, tertiary. The results obtained from biometrics and matrices production were the average lengths of shoots that presented the highest value of 22 cm for the plant with secondary cut with quaternary budding. The secondary shoots of the plant with cut in the matrix had the lowest value of 3.0cm. In the variable average width of shoots, it can be noted that the plant with secondary cut presented the same average values in the secondary and quaternary shoots of 18cm. The lowest value was 3 cm in the secondary shoots of the matrix. The highest weight means for the quaternary shoots of the plants with tertiary and secondary cutting, being their values, respectively, 251,33 and 231,4g. The lowest mean was the secondary sprout plant with cut in the matrix, 1.8g. The results show that the tertiary and secondary plants presented the highest median values of the Mexican elephant ear palm in the biometrics and production area. Both the matrix and primary cutting plants showed lower values compared to secondary and tertiary plants.